The first set of changes are to take place on the inside of the river loop by proposing three "loops" for private vehicle journeys into the centre to reduce congestion, improve bus times and encourage walking and cycling. The hope is to reduce traffic and improve bus priority by making a two-way bus service between Welsh Bridge and English Bridge, which is currently not available meaning bus users must interchange to travel to either side of town.

The third section of the proposals are changes to existing and new public transport services. To make better use of the river around the town centre, there are plans to introduce a water taxi which will help facilitate journeys from locations such as Shrewsbury Castle to West Midlands Showground.

There are many Park & Ride sites around Shrewsbury with services that run no later than 6.30pm or on weekends. These services tend to experience delays and have one stop within the city. Proposals are being made to improve levels of service and choice at each location to make it more attractive.

Mobility hubs are also being introduced at locations such as the rail station alongside new bus priority lanes and improvements to frequency and routes.

The key changes we focused on:

1. Introduction of traffic loops within the river loop
2. New active travel links across the river and railway line
3. Addition of a two-way bus route
4. Introduction of the river taxi
5. Consolidation of bus station and railway station into a mobility hub

The data used for the analysis was obtained from Datacutter this included the Q4 2024 public transport network, the OS Highways network and traffic speeds (available to local authorities through the Public Sector Geospatial Agreement (PSGA)). Inside TRACC we amended the road network by removing access for private motor vehicles along certain links and to add in new active travel links. Using TRACC's PT editing tools existing bus stops were re-located and we created new stops for a two-way bus route and water taxi.

New Traffic Loops

Car access was removed at the proposed locations within TRACC and analysed the journey time from four gateways to the town centre. There was little change to journey times within each loop, however, journeys to other loops could take considerably longer. In particular, journeys from Chester Street Gyratory to other loops were increased by between 9 and 24 minutes due to the detour required.

It is worth noting that the analysed journeys show the worst case scenario as the majority of journeys will start from outside of the river loop and therefore the required detour is unlikely to be as large.

Outside of the plans in Shrewsbury Moves, Shropshire Council are also looking at the addition of a relief road to link the northern and western parts of Shrewsbury.

A two-way bus route was added to connect Frankwell to Bellevue, as well as stopping at the railway station mobility hub. Also a water-taxi was added to increase access around town and to the West Midlands Showground. These changes had a large impact on journey times by public transport. For example, journeys from the Quarry to West Midlands Showground were reduced by up to 63% due to the two water-taxi stops within the park connecting directly to the showground. As well as allowing for direct public transport journey to be made from Frankwell to Bellevue, there was also a 40% reduction in travel time to Bellevue from near the train station due to the new mobility hub and water taxi stop.